It Does the Body Good
Source: By Robert Mackie, Superintendent
1/5/2005
The Rural Health Network of South Central New York has partnered with the Downsville Central School district to promote nutrition and physical activity. The Food Service Department ran an "It Does a Body Good" promotion that included: making better food choices, promoting physical activity, 5 A Day "Eat Your Colors", choosing sensible snacks, and reading nutrition labels.
The project ran through the months of November and December. Starting with "Eat Your Colors", food samples were offered weekly for seven weeks. The samples included foods of a specific color for that week and were handed out to students and staff in the cafeteria. Information and recipes were available for the foods offered.
Pedometers were available to track the amount of steps students walked in a day. The goal is 10,000 a day!
5 A Day was promoted in the classroom and cafeteria. Everyone should be eating five fruits and vegetables a day. A weekly chart was kept by students and prizes were given to all students that ate 5 A Day for a week.
"Choose Sensibly" is a healthy snack guideline developed by the New York State School Food Service Association. Snacks should not exceed seven grams of fat, two grams of saturated fat, 360 mg sodium, and 15 gm of sugar. Snacks are labeled that met the guidelines and are promoted in the cafeteria.
Information is abvailable to students, staff and parents on how to read labels, what a serving is, and how to calculate the sugar content in teaspoons of sugar.
